By Marcel Proust, adapted by Stéphane Heuet (NBM)
ISBN: 978-1-56163-513-9
I love comics, both in form and function, and wouldn’t ever be without them. I also read the odd book or two.
Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust, although perhaps an acquired taste, wrote what is considered by many to be one of the better ones (actually a bunch of them classed as one) and even though there are no robots or alien invasions and precious few fist-fights, the incredibly brave and ambitious Stéphane Heuet has undertaken to adapt à la recherché du temps perdu, and is going about it in a most satisfying manner.
This graphic narrative is using “Remembrance of Things Past” for its title – which is what it was called when originally translated by C. F. Scott-Moncrieff, who turned the six volumes (3200 pages) of French into English between 1922 and 1931, although, when Penguin’s 1995 edition was released, the complete reworking by scholars from three countries settled upon “In Search of Lost Time” as a more fitting title.
What’s it about? In broad short form it considers the huge social changes that occurred in France and the world, especially the diminution of aristocracy and the advancement of the Middle Classes from the Troisième République (French Third Republic -1870 until the Nazis installed the Vichy Government in 1940) to the fin de siècle or turn of the 20th century. It’s about memory and nostalgia and how the senses can become doorways into our pasts. It’s about a guy recalling the village where he grew up. It is a vast achievement with over 2000 characters and is an acknowledged masterpiece of the written word. You should try it some time.
We are talking about Heuet’s adaptation now though, and in this volume vain, self-absorbed gentleman-about-town Swann falls in with an aggressively social-climbing crowd only to find his savoir-faire and savoir-vivre lost when he accidentally falls in love with his perception of the lovely Odette. That’s all you get. The artist has produced a sweet and subtle, marvellously European confection that is both beguiling and oddly fulfilling. The stylish, muted palette and heavy dependence on talking head-shots will deter many potential readers, so I’m going to do nothing to mar the soft pleasures of this wonderful book from any who are willing to let this dreamy tale unravel for them…
Classics Illustrated used to adapt books into comic form and they became a short-cut for school cheats who couldn’t be bothered to read great literature or were to busy to study for exams. This superb tome – and all its companion volumes – is far more than a précis in pictures; this worshipful adaptation is a companion to, not a substitute for; and thus is another brilliant example of the range of our art-form, and well worthy of your serious attention.
© 2006 Guy Delcourt Productions. Translation © 2007 NBM. All Rights Reserved.